Rubio Blames GOP for Government Dependency

Tad DeHaven

4/30/2013 12:01:00 AM - Tad DeHaven

According to The Hill, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told Rush Limbaugh that the Republican Party is “primarily” to blame for the growth in government dependency:

“I’d say that’s a growing problem in America in general,” Rubio said. “I think we have a growing problem in this country that too many people have forgotten what the true sense of prosperity is … and let me tell you who I blame for that first and foremost. I blame that primarily, quite frankly, on decisions made by the Republican Party in the past to embrace crony capitalism and corporate welfare as conservatism, when, in fact, that’s not what we’re about.”

That’s a pretty serious charge. Although I think both parties deserve equal blame (food stamps are an example), I give Rubio credit for not going along with the standard Republican delusion that Obama lit the torch of government dependency. The current occupant of the White House had it passed to him, and Rubio appears to acknowledge that reality:

“I also think that while we’ve had multiple candidates in the past that have campaigned as limited-government conservatives … until it’s their government program that they’re trying to protect, or what have you,” he said. “So I don’t think necessarily Republicans have always governed as the limited-government movement and the result is you see this kind of confusion in the American electorate about what the source of prosperity is.”

Yep, Republicans talk a good game about limited government but talk is about as far as it goes.

There’s just one problem with Rubio criticizing Republicans who “have campaigned as limited-government conservatives…until it’s their government program that they’re trying to protect.” When it came time to vote to phase out the federal government’s Soviet-style system of subsidies and supports for sugar producers, Rubio sided with his state’s notorious sugar interests.